The songs that will never die

On Tuesday, Portugal woke in mourning: singer-songwriter Jorge Palma died at 76 after cardiac arrest. His songs remain. Euronews asked Herman José and António Zambujo to name their favourite.

Jorge Palma, one of the most influential singers, lyricists and composers in contemporary Portuguese music, died this Monday at the age of 76 in physical years, even though metaphorically he had lived more than a hundred thousand, as he sang in Encosta-te a mim, a song from the 2007 album Voo Nocturno. The video in which Palma appears surrounded by friends, past and present, will remain for posterity. Palma may have left us, but his songs will always be part of Portuguese culture and soul.

On Estróina, a track from his last album, Vida (2023), he sings: “Whoever my undertaker may be, let him take care to dress me properly.” There could be no finer dressing than the many farewell words that have already been devoted to him, and the many he himself wrote.

And, as he went on singing, “and since life is to be lived live and in colour, let us toast to pleasure, without false modesty.” That is what we will do. Euronews spoke to several people close to the singer, to Portuguese culture and to unconditional admirers of his legacy, to understand what remains after his departure and which songs they will never forget.

Herman José – Actor and comedian

For Herman José, who crossed paths with Jorge Palma many times, in different circumstances, his death “leaves a silence that is hard to fill”.

One of his most special memories of the singer goes back to 1974. “I was one of his musicians, alongside the great Pedro Osório. It is one of those recollections that time does not erase and that today returns with particular force. We were all much younger, in a Portugal itself beginning a new life, and even then Jorge’s extraordinary musical personality was already there – restless, free, unpredictable, fascinating,” he recalls.

The comedian says Jorge Palma was a “truly singular musician”, one of those who “never needed to resemble anyone else to be recognised from the very first chord, the first word, the first inflection of that voice”.

From all the work Jorge Palma leaves behind, Herman José chooses Deixa-me Rir (from O Lado Errado da Noite, 1985) “perhaps because in it I find so much of Jorge: the intelligence, the irony, the mistrust of certainties, a certain melancholy hidden behind the smile. And that rare ability to say serious things without ever losing his irreverence,” he concludes.

António Zambujo – Singer and songwriter

For the singer from Beja, picking a single Jorge Palma song is “unfair” because “the whole body of work is immensely rich”. Even so, he accepted Euronews’ challenge and named the song O Meu amor Existe, from the voice-and-piano album Só, released in 1991.

“I consider this record the best in the history of Portuguese music, and whatever I might say about Jorge Palma would never be enough, given the stature I believe he has,” he said.

Gabriel Gomes – Musician and composer

“I have lost a friend, a hero,” Gabriel Gomes tells us, the accordionist and former member of Madredeus and Sétima Legião. He immediately adds that “I gained so much from having him in my life”.

Earlier this year he shared the stage with Jorge Palma, and at the Artes à Vila festival, in the Batalha Monastery, he presented his first solo work.

“The emptiness hurts, but his memory and his work will eventually fill it. It was quick, as he deserved,” he says.

Gabriel Gomes chose the song Passos em Volta, from the album Bairro do Amor, which they played together on stage so many times and in which, just as in the lyrics, Jorge Palma “opened the window and flew away”.

Tiago Cação – artistic agent

With a long career in the music and entertainment industries and in artistic management, he admits he never wanted to meet Jorge Palma.

“I never wanted to meet Jorge. I never wanted to get close to him. I always wanted to keep Jorge in an untouchable place, where the great poets and great musicians I have always admired reside. On Friday, my father (much younger than Jorge), whom I thought knew nothing about music, said: ‘I would not like to die without seeing a Jorge Palma concert. Because with artists like Jorge, we always think they do not die. And they do not’,” he shared.

For Tiago, the song he will never forget is Sonhadores inatos. “I identify with the simple idea of never stopping dreaming, despite the inevitabilities that ‘this’ business of being alive entails.”

Fernando Vendrell – Director

The filmmaker confides that today he can only bring to mind Frágil (Bairro do Amor, 1989). “Tonight I feel so fragile,” he paraphrases.

Director of films such as “Aparição” and “Sombras Brancas”, Fernando Vendrell remembers Jorge Palma as “an extraordinary writer of songs”.

“In my view, they are among the most perfect songs ever written in Portugal. His gaze and his writing were agile, his melodies graceful and unique. They brought with them a world we belonged to, or wanted to be part of,” he says.

Ana Margarida de Carvalho – Journalist and writer

When she received the news of the singer’s death, Na Terra dos Sonhos was the first to come to mind, because of its melody and because it was written by a “sceptical optimist”.

Ana Margarida de Carvalho confesses she knows all the albums, songs, acoustic and live versions, where “his virtuosity on the piano, acoustic guitar or electric guitar” stood out: “He had enormous versatility, a powerful voice that has withstood the passage of time,” she recalls, referring to the many concerts she attended. Jorge Palma’s voice also endured in her daily life. “He is always on my car playlist…”, she says.

Among Jorge Palma’s many songs, the journalist also highlights Portugal, Portugal, which she considers “an anthem”, and Estrela do Mar, with chords “that sound like waves, or the string quartet, in which he pays homage to Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet”.

However, she told Euronews she would choose Eu Fui um Lobo Malvado (Acto Contínuo, 1982). “With naïve lyrics but, in my view, a song that turns in on itself and becomes the most beautiful welcome, a song about friendship and reconciliation, in short, and I know it by heart – and so do my children.”

“I have not yet handled any weapon that did not ricochet/ and the scar always survives the neatest bandage/ but whenever you wish you are welcome in my castle/ which perhaps because it is old and wrinkled/ needs no fresh paint“, she quotes.

Luiz Carvalho – Photographer

The author of the cover photo for this article (which he kindly allowed us to publish) recalls his first meeting with the singer: “I have known you since that afternoon in 1980 in Paris, when I photographed you singing in the Saint-Michel metro station. Afterwards we went for a drink, I think it was Graça Lamy who was with us too. The damned negative exists but I cannot find it. I love your work and, above all, your attitude to life: free, nonconformist, courteous, a musician with classical roots, at times too crazy for the body to cope with. I would have liked to make a documentary about you, something alive, handheld camera, direct sound… you will remain forever in my heart and I will keep listening to you, for as long as I still have road ahead of me”.

The song he has chosen is O Lado Errado da Noite, “a striking melody that has so much to do with part of his path”.

Finally… the choices of the authors of this piece

Ana Filipa Palma: A Gente Vai Continuar is not only one of his best songs, it is also one of the most listened to today and, above all, a guarantee that his voice will remain “for as long as there are winds and sea”.

The tribute to Palma at the latest edition of the Play awards ended with the entire audience singing A Gente Vai Continuar.

Ricardo Figueira: I choose Bairro do Amor because it is good to believe that there is a place drawn in coloured pencil by people who suffered for having no one, a country with no prisons and no hospitals, where the sun seems bigger and there are waves of tenderness in every gaze. Even if that place only exists in songs.

Source: www.euronews.com